A job that has bal­ance

EARLY child­hood ed­u­ca­tion is the ideal field in which to work for flex­i­ble work­ing ar­range­ments, work/life bal­ance and job se­cu­rity.

The Rand­stad World of Work Re­port 2012 finds th­ese em­ploy­ees are among the most sat­is­fied in Aus­tralia, with healthy lev­els of hap­pi­ness. More than half (54 per cent) of em­ploy­ees in­tend­ing to stay with their cur­rent early child­hood ed­u­ca­tion or­gan­i­sa­tion say good work/life bal­ance and flex­i­ble work op­tions are the pri­mary rea­sons.

Yet em­ployee re­ten­tion is an es­ca­lat­ing is­sue, with a third of em­ploy­ees in­tend­ing to leave their job, cit­ing a lack of op­por­tu­nity for growth and de­vel­op­ment as the main rea­son.

That is al­most three times the num­ber who will leave be­cause of an un­com­pet­i­tive salary.

‘‘ This highlights the need for early child­hood cen­tres to work closely with em­ploy­ees to de­velop in­di­vid­ual ca­reer paths and think cre­atively about how to of­fer op­por­tu­ni­ties for growth,’’ says Rand­stad op­er­a­tions direc­tor Chris­tine Cur­phey.